How to Persuade Your Company to Change
Like a lot of developers and database administrators, I do a fair amount of short-term problem solving during the course of my normal work week. I get to join...
2019-07-19
10 reads
Managing Cross-Database Dependencies in Builds (Redgate video)
Building your database code is an essential practice to ensure that it compiles from source and that dependencies are met. But things can get tricky when you have objects...
2019-06-25
6 reads
How Developers and DBAs Collaborate in a DevOps World (video)
You’re a DBA, and your development team is all-in on doing DevOps, and they want to include the database. Should your DBA team limit the permissions or options for...
2019-06-13
7 reads
A letter to my 20 year-old self
This post is a part of #tsql2sday, a monthly community ritual where a topic is proposed by a community member and everyone is invited to join in. This month’s...
2019-06-11
11 reads
DBAs: Stop Denying Sysadmin to Developers
I recent chatted with some folks who have a permissions problem in SQL Server. The permissions problem isn’t technical — it’s a process problem. The issue is that these...
2019-05-30
7 reads
What’s Unique About SQL Saturdays: Nearly Everyone Interacts with Other People
Today I was looped in on an email thread about the pros and cons of attending a specific event. One person on the thread asked if any of us...
2019-05-21
3 reads
How to recognize the early stages of burnout, and my treatment plan
I recently realized that I’m in the early stages of burnout. This isn’t an unfamiliar place for me, but it is new for me to recognize the early signs...
2019-05-14
6 reads
Paying down technical debt
One of the cool things that I do as an Evangelist at Redgate is to periodically visit company headquarters in Cambridge. The other Evangelists and I get to meet...
2019-05-07
5 reads
What is Automation?
Today I got a bit closer to a meaningful definition of automation, as it applies to the software development process. I’ve been turning this concept over in my head...
2019-04-29
5 reads
Should release cadence be slowed if you don’t have database load testing?
I got a question recently about a panel discussion on Database Development Disasters at SQL in the City Streamed. I had framed a question as, “how fast should development...
2019-04-23
8 reads
Blogs
Don’t Miss Out – SQL Server Query Tuning Fundamentals Starts Next Monday!
Next Monday, February 9, 2026, my one-day live online training SQL Server Query Tuning...
Monday Monitor Tips: SQL Auditing Preview
By Steve Jones
One of the features we advocates have been advocating for is a better way...
SQL Server 2025 CU1 Fixes the Docker Desktop AVX Issue on macOS
Microsoft fixed the AVX instruction issue in SQL Server 2025 CU1. The container now...
Forums
25 Years of SQL Server Central
Comments posted to this topic are about the item 25 Years of SQL Server...
The Decoded Value
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Decoded Value
Deploying SQL Server Developer Edition in Kubernetes: A Cost-Effective Alternative to RDS
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Deploying SQL Server Developer Edition...
Question of the Day
The Decoded Value
In SQL Server 2025, what is returned from this code:
DECLARE @message VARCHAR(50) = 'Hello SQL Server 2025!'; DECLARE @encoded VARCHAR(MAX); SET @encoded = BASE64_ENCODE(CAST(@message AS VARBINARY(1000))); SELECT BASE64_DECODE(@encoded)See possible answers